MusicWeb International
‘This is an outstanding disc…there’s a delightful transparency to the orchestra textures at all times.’
more >>

BBC Radio 3 'CD Review'
‘It’s an excellent display of the richness of her voice and the vocal and dynamic range. And the playing while the chamber scale sucks us into the heart of the poetry with the really clean, clear sound the Scottish Chamber Orchestra can produce.’
more >>

International Record Review
‘Karen Cargill is up against some illustrious mezzo competition on disc, yet her ravishing account of Les nuits d’ete ranks up there with the best of them.’
more >>

MusicWeb International
‘I was completely entranced…sounds excellent.’
more >>

The Arts Desk
‘Robin Ticciati achieves exactly the right lightness, the delicacy, in a song cycle which should ideally delight as much as it moves. He’s well matched by mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill…Best of all is L’île inconnue; Cargill’s “Où voulez-vous aller?” is impossible to resist.’
more >>

The Independent
'...a performance of extraordinary musical delicacy...'
more >>

Gramophone Magazine
Record of the Month: ‘One of the striking facets of Ticciati's conducting and the SCO's playing is the clarity and detail that spring from the score'
more >>

Gramophone
CD of the month: ‘One of the striking facets of Ticciati’s conducting and the SCO’s playing is the clarity and detail that spring from the score.’
more >>

Sinfini Music
'...the technical command and hyper-accurate tuning are bombproof.'
more >>

Financial Times
'Not since Régine Crespin 50 years ago has this music been so attractively interpreted...'
more >>

Financial Times
Robin Ticciati’s grasp of the music’s romantic bloom is one of this disc’s attractions
more >>

The Guardian
'...wonderfully controlled and exquisitely shaded...'
more >>

SA-CD.net
'One does not need to have heard this work before (or to understand French) to appreciate the stopping of the beating heart rhythm to know what this symbolises.'
more >>

The Times
'...piercing clarity of colour and texture; heightened drama; increased tenderness and intimacy.'
more >>

The world continues to shrink! First we have Philippe Herreweghe and his Champs-Elysées forces in Bruckner's mighty Fifth
Symphony with an orchestra of just 68. Then Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in a convincing reading of another Bruckner symphony, this time the Second. Robyn Ticciati's outstanding Symphonie Fantastique a couple of years ago belled the cat about how Berlioz can sound with smaller forces: this emotional roller coaster, where passion so often becomes an extreme sport lacked nothing in drama and, well, passion in their account.

This current super-audio disc represents Ticciati's latest foray into Berlioz. I listened to this release with a Berlioz expert and asked him not to reveal his reaction until after I'd written this revue. When he read it, he concurred completely. We both loved both the performances and the interpretation.

The early La Morte de Cleopâtre sees the up-and-coming mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill in quite superb voice. Their can be no greater praise heaped on her than to say that, not since Dame Janet Baker's recording more than 40 years ago has the worked been so successfully and graphically sung. It has just the right degree of histrionic agony as well as plenty of poetic sensuality. The Love Scene from Romeo et Juliet is the only number which could, perhaps, benefit from the traditional larger body of strings but this performance reminds us that, despite being, along with Wagner, the ultimate Romantic composer, Berlioz was far more influenced by Classicism than many concede. It also makes Berlioz's music sound even more incredibly modern than usual.

The real gem on this CD however is the famous song cycle Les nuits d'été. Here is Berlioz at his most interesting and intimate, a world away from the elephantine excesses of the Requiem and the Te Deum. Every song is shot through with gorgeous half tones and Karen Cargill misses nothing, savouring every phrase to perfection. Her French is also on a par with Dame Janet's, who also recorded a landmark version of this with Sir John Barbirolli at around the same time as the La Morte de Cleopâtre. The orchestral accompaniment is similarly exquisite and alert to every detail. I simply cannot imagine even the best chamber orchestra playing with such luxuriance and at the same time, control, in a previous age.

Linn's recording team has brilliantly captured the proceedings in Edinburgh's Usher Hall. This CD is a real revelation.